Stores Post Billboard Ads for Tobacco, Despite Ban

Published: May 9, 1999

PHILADELPHIA, May 8—
Tobacco companies banished the Marlboro man from roadside signs last month in an agreement to end outdoor advertising of cigarettes, but that is not stopping a convenience store chain from promoting the brand on its own highway billboards.

The billboards for Wawa Food Markets, on Interstate 76 and other major highways, show a bright red pack of Marlboros and read, ''$2.19 for limited time only.''

As a retailer, the five-state chain says it is not affected by the tobacco settlement. But a leading anti-smoking advocate says the billboards run counter to the spirit of the 46-state agreement that asked tobacco companies to stop directing their advertising at youths with images like the Marlboro man and Joe Camel.

''It's not only any cigarette, but the brand of cigarette that is by far used the most by teen-agers,'' said Jeff Barg, a medical newsletter publisher who heads the anti-smoking group Tobacco Free Education and Action Coalition for Health. ''And it is advertising low prices, which would be particularly attractive to kids, who have the least disposable income.''

State Attorney General Mike Fisher is aware of the Wawa billboards and considering what limitations the tobacco settlement imposes on retailers, said a spokesman, Sean Connolly.

Tobacco companies agreed that the cigarette billboards that once lined the nation's highways would come down by April 23, under the $206 billion settlement with 46 states over smoking-related health costs. Pennsylvania stands to receive $11.3 billion over 25 years if a pending court challenge is resolved.

Wawa, a privately held chain of nearly 500 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, said that as a retailer, it does not consider itself a participant in the tobacco settlement.

The company, based in Middletown Township, 15 miles west of Philadelphia, issued a statement saying that it intends to continue advertising low-priced cigarettes.

''Wawa regularly advertises on billboards a variety of products, including hoagies, coffee and A.T.M.'s,'' the company said, adding that the cigarette ads are ''general in nature . . . not thematic or image-based advertisements.''

The ads include the Surgeon General's warning and a commitment to prohibit sales to minors, the statement said. A spokesman, Julie Keiffer, said the company would not comment further.

''It is an example of one of the loopholes,'' said Dr. Robert Sklaroff, a Philadelphia cancer specialist who has an appeal pending in Commonwealth Court challenging Pennsylvania's participation in the settlement. ''That's why I'm attacking the agreement. It was basically created to do as little as possible.''

Other anti-smoking advocates disputed the argument that retailers could disregard the agreement.

''Those billboards should have been down two weeks ago and they are in violation of the settlement,'' said William T. Godshall of Pittsburgh, executive director of Smokefree Pennsylvania.

Noting that the outdoor advertising ban applies only to signs larger than 14 square feet, Mr. Godshall also criticized other retailers for putting out a proliferation of 3-foot-by-4.5-foot cigarette signs in front of their stores.

''They are just getting rid of all the big billboards and putting up a lot of little billboards . . . right at the kids' eye level,'' he said.